Posted: 03/07/2011 01:00:00 AM MST

Updated: 03/07/2011 08:54:26 AM MST

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_17553297

The offense, as the Internal Revenue Service describes it, went like this: One Tuesday in October, $9,500 cash was deposited into a business's bank account and then, 20 minutes later at a bank 3 miles away, another $9,500 cash was deposited into a separate account for the same business. The next day, it happened again. On two days of the following week, same thing.

IRS investigators don't allege that the money came from a shady enterprise. Instead, it came from a popular family-run corn maze in Thornton.

Agents nonetheless are seeking to seize as much as $130,000 from the operators of the Crazed Corn Field Maze, alleging the business broke an anti-money-laundering law.

Federal officials say that laws prohibiting the types of bank deposits the corn maze's owners are accused of making are vital tools in fighting organized crime, terrorism and other wrongdoing.

Criminal defense attorneys bemoan their use as "legal speed traps" that ensnare well-meaning people along with the bad guys.

"This is a statute that's a trap for the unwary," said David Smith, a Virginia defense attorney and an expert in forfeiture law, who is not involved in the Colorado case.

The civil seizure case against the Crazed Corn Field Maze — currently pending in federal court in Denver — revolves around little-known banking regulations.

Anytime someone deposits more than $10,000 cash in a day into an account, banks are required to file a special report to the IRS.

Breaking up cash deposits to keep them below $10,000 and avoid the report's creation is called "structuring."

Structuring is often indicative of bigger wrongdoing — drug dealers and tax cheats are common practitioners. But structuring is also illegal on its own, even if the source of the money is legitimate and the taxes on it paid.

Federal officials say laws against structuring are necessary to preserve the transparency that allows them to bust crooks.

Jeff Dorschner, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Denver, said prosecutors take numerous steps — including meeting with the offenders and giving them a chance to explain — before the government seizes structured money.

"There's ample process," he said.

Dorschner said he could not comment on the Crazed Corn Field Maze case because it is ongoing.

Gina Palombo, a member of an Adams County farming family who is accused in court documents of making most of the maze's deposits, did not return several calls for comment.

According to the IRS's civil forfeiture warrant, more than $260,000 in round-number deposits below $10,000 — $9,500, $9,000, $8,500 — were made into Crazed Corn Field Maze accounts in October of 2008, 2009 and 2010. One of those accounts has since been closed.

Smith, the defense attorney, said many structuring offenders break up their deposits because they fear the IRS will think they're up to something illegal if they deposit more than $10,000. Many don't realize structuring is illegal, he said.

Smith said he thinks first-time offenders should receive only a warning. The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers agrees. "When there's no actual intent to harm anyone," said Jack King, the group's spokesman, "it shouldn't be a federal crime."